INDIA’S FIRST INDIGENOUS SEMICONDUCTOR CHIPS FOR 4G/LTE AND 5G NR MODEMS

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GS 3: Science & Technology | Indigenization of technology & developing new technology

Why in News?

  • A Bengaluru based company SIGNALCHIP has fabricated high performance and cost-efficient semiconductor chips.
  • These would enable high-speed wireless communication.

Highlights:

  • Four chips designed by SIGNALCHIP
  • SCBM3412: a single chip 4G/LTE modem including the baseband and transceiver sections in a single device
  • SCBM3404: a single chip 4X4 LTE baseband modem
  • SCRF3402: a 2X2 transceiver for LTE
  • SCRF4502: a 2X2 transceiver for 5G NR standards

Specifications:

  • The RF sections cover all LTE/5G-NR bands upto 6 GHz. These chips also support positioning using India’s own satellite navigation system, NAVIC.
  • The combined multi-standard system-on-chip (SoC) can serve as a base station chipset for a wide range of form factors from low-cost indoor small cells to high performance base stations.
  • Through the IPs created for devices, the company now has the potential to design products for multiple related fields.

Significance:

  • Currently, in India, all devices and infrastructure, whether imported or domestically manufactured, use imported silicon chips.
  • Silicon chip design is a very challenging activity requiring high-cost R&D, deep knowhow and mastery of multiple complex domains.
  • Hence, this technology is not available in most countries.

Impact:

  • Data Security is the paramount concern in the World today and India cannot remain secure in terms of data, unless it manufactures its own chips.
  • India is just breaking into the elite club of the world and this will have huge implications for India’s data security and data sovereignty, besides the positive economic implications.
  • At present only 8 companies and a few countries can design and build semiconductor chips.
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